Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Now, with his own reputation, the series' fans, and continuous promotion, this game is unlikely to do too badly in terms of sales. As for whether it can break even, that depends on the quality of the game's development.

As for the community, players are still having heated discussions.

They even spontaneously organized a team to begin analyzing this world view in advance, and they did it in a very professional manner. The world view they created even surprised the original designers on the development team.

They were surprised by the players' enthusiasm for the game.

They were able to build their entire worldview by piecing together existing settings.

These players don't charge any fees at all; they provide inspiration to the designers completely free of charge.

Zhu Youxing was also somewhat moved when he saw this. In later years, there were always similar memes on the internet, which meant that when a player or fan wrote something interesting enough, it would elicit a burst of exclamations, and then the comments below would say something like, "Here's a pen, you write something like that."

Of course, the settings created by these players cannot be directly copied, but they still have some reference value and can be considered as helping the designers reduce some of their workload, which makes them very happy.

Then, the year 1999 arrived quickly.

The last year of the millennium.

Chapter 325 Game Development: A Time to Unleash Your Potential

At the end of 1998, as usual, YiNan Games conducted a game selection.

This year's game awards were also quite utilitarian. Apart from the Game of the Year award for WarioVio on the GBA, which was given to recognize the game's pioneering contributions to the industry, the other game awards seemed to be mixed with elements of profit.

YiNan Games seems to be heading in a direction from which there is no turning back.

Kazuo Murakami, the original founder of the forum and website, announced his departure from the company he founded on the day the game awards were announced. He transferred all his shares to his father and then went to the University of Tokyo to study computer science.

Kazuo Murakami is also a man with a fascinating story. He founded the Kazuo Game Forum while still in junior high school and gradually developed it into an influential ranking organization in the industry, which is quite remarkable.

The authority of YiNan Games has been established in the last few years.

However, Kazuo Murakami, the founder of Ichiman Games, announced his departure just as Ichiman Games was becoming increasingly famous, and no one knows why.

He didn't explain anything to the outside world; everyone just thought it might be because Murakami Kazuo wanted to focus on his studies.

In short, many people made speculations, but it was just a minor piece of gossip within the industry and didn't cause much of a stir.

If Takeyusei were to pay attention at this moment, he might ask Murakami Kazuo what was going on through his alternate account on the internet.

In Takeyusei's view, Murakami Kazuo's decision to leave the website he founded was definitely not that simple. It's just that Takeyusei has now devoted all his focus to the development of Final Fantasy VII and hasn't had time to pay attention to outside news for a long time.

In particular, only Takeyusei knew about the connection between Ichiro's game website and Takeyusei; no one else knew about it. When Ichiro Murakami ran into trouble, no one even thought to mention it to Takeyusei.

At the company headquarters, the game's development has entered a critical phase.

First, there's the production of the game's special effects animations, and then the creation and processing of 3D characters.

The GS1's current gaming console performance is comparable to its predecessor, the PS2, which means that the graphics of the original Final Fantasy VII can also be improved to a certain extent.

In its previous life, Final Fantasy VII was released during the transition period between the 3D and 7D eras, when all the technologies were not yet fully mature.

Although this world is also in this period, thanks to the visionary guidance of Takeyusei, and because this world's technology tree is already faster than the previous one, it is possible to make the original Final Fantasy VII graphics even more exquisite and the CG animation effects even more beautiful.

The investment in CG effects alone quickly exceeded 40 million US dollars, and this was only in the middle stage of the main storyline of Final Fantasy.

There will be even grander battle scenes to come, which will also cost a huge amount of money.

Zhu Youxing previously stated that the development investment would be 100 million US dollars, but in reality, he had already prepared to exceed the budget.

It should be at least 150 million.

With such a massive investment, the CG effects in Final Fantasy VII are naturally quite impressive.

Its CG performance is comparable to that of Warcraft 3, with very three-dimensional characters and exquisite scenes.

Similarly, with such CG animation development effects, the Unreal Engine development team and the special effects team have accumulated a lot of experience. Now, each of them has become the strongest person in special effects, and they can be proud to be considered in the film and television industry.

Besides the CG effects, the game's development has also entered its mid-stage.

If all goes well, the first demo game should be launched simultaneously with the official release of the GS1.

Yusei Takeshi has made a decision: he will simply include the first encounter chapter of Final Fantasy VII in the GS1.

On the one hand, it gives all players who buy the game console the opportunity to experience Final Fantasy VII, which is a form of indirect advertising. On the other hand, it can also showcase the performance of this machine through the powerful graphics of Final Fantasy VII.

In the original Final Fantasy VII, each character's polygons looked angular, and due to unavoidable circumstances, some scenes had to be sacrificed, and the number of characters in battle had to be reduced to three or less to ensure the overall stability of the game. Furthermore, the rich combat and equipment systems of the original Final Fantasy series were also somewhat reduced.

These are all regrets from the original Final Fantasy VII.

But this time, Zhuyouxing doesn't have to worry about these problems.

The GS1's performance ensures that Final Fantasy VII can be created to its fullest potential without worrying about the limitations of the machine's own capabilities.

However, the three-person squad combat setting can still be retained. Three people is just the number that most players can handle. If there are more than that, some players who are new to this type of game will feel a bit overwhelmed.

Because Final Fantasy VII is not exactly the same as traditional turn-based games, it also requires precise timing for battles; otherwise, a crisis will occur.

However, they can be more creative in terms of character design.

All the angular chibi characters from the previous life were overturned. The chibi style can be retained in the world of adventure, but the shape must be more rounded so that the characters are not so angular.

Then, in battle scenes, the main characters' appearances must be close to real people, and the visuals must be better.

Combat is the most important element of this game, so naturally all resources should be invested in the battle scenes.

And so, the originally scheduled release date for the GS1 gradually drew closer.

June 1, 1999, was the official release date of the GS1.

After more than half a year of aggressive promotion, with a marketing budget exceeding 70 million US dollars, the GS1 has finally been unveiled after much anticipation.

Players have been eagerly anticipating it for a long time.

This was the largest release of any previous GBA.

The GBA had already broken industry records, with sales exceeding one million units on its first day. After more than half a year of sales, the GBA's global sales also successfully exceeded ten million units, showing an unstoppable momentum.

None of the other handheld consoles from the same industry can compete.

Ultimately, the most important factor is the quality of the game itself.

No other company has more good games than Yuxing Electronic Entertainment.

Previously, Surui Electronics could gain an advantage in image quality by having better machine performance.

However, the GBA is a complete 32-bit chip, which, while limiting the expressive power of 3D games, also gave 2D games more room for development on the GBA.

Surui Electronics' handheld consoles became obsolete because they never expected that Youxing Electronics Entertainment would skip 16-bit chips and jump directly to the 32-bit era, catching them off guard.

If Surui Electronics is in such a bad state, American companies like Lierda and Red Fruit, which develop game consoles and handheld devices, are in even worse shape.

These people who only value physical assets are still stuck in their ways and have no idea of ​​how to change things. They still insist on physical development as the main driver and now they have a completely lazy attitude. They have lost the great ambition they had when they first entered the game industry.

Meanwhile, on the other side, a group of people suddenly emerged as a dark horse.

It was a new company, and the CEO's name was Hack Brown.

Chapter 326 Your Only Choice

Hack Brown made a high-profile announcement that he had recruited more than 300 game developers, and he promised to give them maximum freedom and financial investment, and that they would consider shifting their focus from physical industries to the game software itself.

Their first target market was the personal PC gaming industry.

Prior to the release of GS1, Hack Brown's new company released their first game on PC.

This is a very popular first-person shooter game on PC right now, and it's also a game based on a real World War II story, telling the story of the American Normandy landings.

This story is well-known in the history of World War II, and it has been told by many people in movies, TV shows, and novels.

Especially in a world with a thriving cultural industry, there are even more cultural works of this kind.

However, the gaming industry has almost never been involved in this story.

Hack Brown accurately grasped this point, and with the joint advice of the developers, three hundred employees worked intensively for six months. To this end, Hack Brown even used the money from selling some stocks to buy a ten-year license for the then-popular Unreal Engine for development.

In this way, with more than 300 people and the world's most powerful game engine, they developed a realistic first-person shooter game in just six months.

This has a significant impact on players.

Players, especially those in Europe and America, are the ones who feel the most empathy for this period of history.

Through this history, they can appreciate the heroic deeds of their ancestors and feel a sense of identity with them.

The first-person shooter perspective allowed players to experience the war story firsthand, which acted as a catalyst, instantly igniting the US market.

PC sales reached 200,000 units in the first week alone.

Thanks to the openness of PCs, the cost of physical production was greatly reduced. It was only necessary to copy a DVD from a disc factory to sell it. And most importantly, there was no need to pay any so-called game development royalties to any manufacturer.

Apart from the cost of pressing the plates, all other revenue belongs to Hack Brown.

Then, he generously distributed all the money to his more than 300 subordinates, promising them that he would not take a single penny of the game revenue for the next six months, except for necessary expenses, and would give it all to his employees.

This is practically a rebellious act in the US market; almost no other US company would do this.

But precisely because of this, Hack Brown immediately amassed a strong following in the United States.

Then, in the following weeks, the game's sales remained at 200,000 per week. A month later, he made a high-profile announcement that he would enter other regional markets, especially high-consumption regions such as Europe.

And so, Hack Brown’s new company began to establish itself in the personal PC market, and had ambitions to expand worldwide.

As for Yuxing Electronic Entertainment at this time, it continued to carry out its promotional work in an orderly manner, seemingly without any reaction to Huck Brown's rise.

At least in the short term, Huck Brown is not yet able to pose any threat to Youxing Electronic Entertainment.

The other party's focus is on the PC market, which is only a secondary pursuit for Zhuyouxing. Their current focus is still on game consoles.

Unless Huck Brown decides to remake the game console someday, Takeyusei won't care.

Moreover, it's possible that such simple game developers will eventually release their games on Youxing Electronics' machines, since having an additional channel means earning more money. At least in the short term, the two sides are not considered competitors.

While Takeyusei focused on developing Final Fantasy VII, the promotion and marketing of GS1 never stopped.

Initially, GS1 only focused on promoting the console's performance and the graphics of games.

Just these two promotional efforts are enough to attract a lot of players.

Following this, Yuxing Electronics Entertainment gradually revealed other exclusive features of the GS1, further widening the gap with other game consoles.

First, Yuxing Electronics Entertainment heavily promoted the GS1 game controller throughout February.

This time, the game controller features dual joysticks and four shoulder buttons, and the combination of the dual joysticks and shoulder buttons greatly increases the dimensions of player control over the character.